Snapdeal acquisition talks with Flipkart called off, SD to run on its own

Snapdeal, run by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd, has walked away from talks to sell itself to Flipkart and the struggling online marketplace will now try and survive as an independent entity by selling assets and cutting costs.

The decision to end discussions with Flipkart marks a big win for Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl (CEO) and Rohit Bansal (chief operating officer), both of whom were against the sale to their sworn enemy Flipkart from the start. Bahl and Bansal have won the bitter boardroom battle against Snapdeal’s largest investor SoftBank Group Corp, which was pushing for the sale to Flipkart.

A call between the key stakeholders is expected on Sunday night, and a potential public announcement on the fate of the deal could be made as early as Monday.

Recently SD has sold freecharge to Axis Bank at a whopping amount of 385 crore. When the experts were asked whether the sale of freecharge has pushed SD to stand on its own, the answer was in negation. They said, “Everybody wants to be the leader in this global world and so does Snapdeal. Though it would be difficult for SD to stand on its own but not impossible”.

There were reports earlier that Snapdeal was stating its worth to be around 1 billion USD but the Flipkart was offering only around 900 million USD.